Very Disturbing Deterioration in Our Human Capital!

Statistically Speaking v.2.0

By Romulo A. Virola [E1]

In the “SEA-PLM 2019 Main Regional Report, Children’s learning in 6 Southeast Asian countries” launched last Tuesday 1 December 2020, Filipino students fared miserably, in the company of Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar, far behind Malaysia and Viet Nam. The first round of the assessment focused on Grade 5 students, and on 3 learning domains: reading, writing and mathematics. [E2]

The following description of the methodology is lifted directly from the Report.

The SEA-PLM 2019 collected children’s and schools’ responses through paper-pencil tests and questionnaires, conducted with a sample of children that is representative of the school population enrolled at Grade 5 in each country. This population is defined by UNESCO (2012) as ‘all children enrolled in the grade that represents 5 years of schooling counting from the first year of ISCED Level 1.’[E3]

SEA-PLM used a 2-stage sample:

(1) Schools were selected as a systematic sample with selection probability proportional to the number of enrolled Grade 5 children from the targeted population. A minimum of 150 schools were sampled from each participating country.

(2) One Grade 5 class was selected at random within each sampled school. All children of the selected class were sampled.

Children’s performance on SEA-PLM questions was calibrated and described on regional metrics (SEA-PLM described proficiency scales) so that learning outcomes can be compared accurately and reliably.

• The SEA-PLM reading proficiency scale includes 5 bands, ranging from Band 2 and below to Band 6 and above.
• The SEA-PLM writing proficiency scale includes 8 bands, ranging from Band 1 and below to Band 8 and above.
• The SEA-PLM mathematical proficiency scale includes 8 bands, ranging from Band 2 and below, to Band 9 and above.

Children in any given band can correctly answer the majority of the questions set for that band and for lower bands, but face greater difficulty in performing the activities set for higher bands.

The scope and format of the SEA-PLM assessment was constructed in collaboration with participating countries, observers, partners and technical experts, taking into consideration policy priorities, technical feasibility, international assessment standards and resource availability

Quality assurance was maintained for tests, questionnaires, survey procedures and data analyses. The tools were standardized across all countries and the entire assessment process, and in the delivery of the final databases, scales and indicators.

SEA-PLM adopts a literacy-based approach and references common curricula targets and content across Southeast Asian countries. The assessment of literacy in reading, writing and mathematics embraces the essential knowledge, skills and understanding of the national curriculum. It also investigates the extent to which such knowledge, skills and understanding can be used in a range of situations arising in both school and daily life. The literacy approach prepares young people to participate as effective members of society and use what they have learned at school — their reading, writing and mathematics skills — to deal with the many challenges they will meet in their life beyond school.

• SEA-PLM reading literacy is to understand, use and respond to a range of written texts, in order to meet personal, societal, economic and civic needs.
• SEA-PLM writing literacy is to construct meaning by generating a range of written texts to express that person’s self and to communicate with others, in order to meet personal, societal, economic and civic needs.
• SEA-PLM mathematical literacy is a person’s capacity when given a problem in a context that is of interest or importance to them. It measures how they translate the problem into a suitable mathematical formulation, apply mathematical knowledge and skills to find a solution, and interpret the mathematical results in relation to the context and review the merits or limitations of those results.

More details on the methodology are discussed in the report.

Now, for the results:

On reading

As shown on Table 1,

• Horror of horrors, the Philippines has the lowest proportion of Grade V children who have attained Band 6 & above reading literacy;
• Not only that, the Philippines also has the lowest proportion of children achieving at least Band 5 reading literacy; and
• Our national reading average score is second lowest!
• Vietnamese children did best followed by the Malaysians, with 82% and 58%, respectively, of their children having achieved at least Band 6 in reading literacy, so far ahead of the four other ASEAN Member States!

On writing

From Table 2,

• In terms of the proportion of Grade 5 children who have achieved at least Band 6 in writing literacy, we are practically tied with Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Myanmar at a disappointing 5–6%;
• Our national writing average score is 3rd lowest, higher than Cambodia and Lao PDR; and
• Again, the Vietnamese children are best followed by the Malaysians with 52% and 31%, respectively, of their Grade 5 children having achieved at least Band 6 in writing literacy. In fact, the superiority of the Vietnamese children in writing literacy is so obvious as 20% of the Vietnamese children have achieved Band 8, versus a very low 4% for Malaysia, 1% for Cambodia, Lao PDR and the Philippines, and 0% for Myanmar. Maybe the focus of our writing lessons has been too much towards having a nice handwriting?

On mathematics

From Table 3:

• No Filipino children have achieved Band 9 mathematics literacy, but neither have children from Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar;
• At most 6% of Grade 5 children in the Philippines, Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar have achieved Band 7 or above in mathematics literacy; and
• Malaysian and particularly Vietnamese children are so far ahead, 40% and 80% of whom, respectively, have achieved mathematics literacy at Band 7 or higher. Recalling how excellent my high school teachers in mathematics had been, I cannot but wonder what has happened to mathematics education in the country! Can the Mathematics Society of the Philippines help?

In summary, in all three literacy domains, the performance of Filipino Grade 5 students is basically at the same level as that of the children from Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar, very much far behind the levels achieved by Malaysian and more impressibly, by the Vietnamese children. Maybe we could learn something from the study habits/ethics of the Vietnamese?

The SEA-PLM results certainly endanger the chance that we will meet the target for SDG Indicator 4.1.1: Proportion of children and young people (a) in grades 2/3; (b) at the end of primary; and © at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading and (ii) mathematics, by sex.

Indeed, coming off our FB post on the Nobel Prize last 01 December, these results disturb, depress, and dampen our hopes for a Filipino Nobel Laureate in the near future.

Worth asking is just what has gone terribly wrong with the way we have been teaching Reading, Writing, and Mathematics in school. Sec. Briones?

I trust that our DepEd will not “solve” the problem by withdrawing participation from the SEA-PLM assessment or by questioning its methodology, as many of our politicians are wont to do when the statistics released by hardworking statistical professionals do not favor their agenda! I hope too, that the DepEd leadership does not expect the President to have to tell them what to do!

The education sector generally, if not always, gets the lion’s share of the government budget but the quality of support is important. There must be safeguards to protect the budget from reallocation to expenditure items that the corrupt can dig their dirty hands into, and to maximize the chances that the budget translates into better outcomes for our students.

We need an overhaul of our educational system including the level of support that the government provides directly to schools, teachers, and students. I wish the taxpayers’ money that we lose to corruption went instead to the salaries, and training/retraining of teachers. Maybe we also need an overhaul of the leadership in the education pillar…leaders who are visionary and innovative who will muster the political will to craft and implement a new policy momentum on education! Or is this simply one of the dire consequences of the Filipino diaspora?

In this regard, may I suggest to the Metrobank Foundation, Inc., which annually searches for Ten Outstanding Filipinos to recognize and honor teachers, soldiers, and police officers, to give more meaning to their program by calling on these outstanding teachers to formulate recommendations on how we can improve the quality of education in the Philippines?

To the Catholics among you, happy, safe celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mama Mary!

Meanwhile, with the traditional simbang gabi about to begin, it is easy to get tempted to violate social distancing and other COVID-19 protocols. Don’t, please???

Reactions may be emailed to ravirola@yahoo.com or sent via Facebook.

Endnotes:

[E1]: Romulo A. Virola is formerly with the Actuarial Research and Development Group of the GSIS, and a former Professorial Lecturer in the Graduate Programs of the Statistical Center/School of Statistics and the Department of Mathematics (now the Institute of Mathematics) of the University of the Philippines . He retired in 2012 as Secretary General of the then National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) of the Philippines or NSCB (now part of the Philippine Statistics Authority). He finished his BS (Mathematics) from UP, and MS (Actuarial Mathematics), MA (Statistics), and PhD (Statistics) from the University of Michigan, where he was a Fellow in its Sampling Program for Foreign Statisticians under the late Prof. Leslie Kish, author of the pioneering “Survey Sampling”, considered by many as the bible in the field. He used to write/co-write the Statistically Speaking articles posted on the NSCB website from 2004 until his retirement. The author thanks his former colleagues in the National Statistical System (NSS) of the Philippines particularly from the NSCB, Jay Mendoza of IOM, UN Migration Agency and some FB adviser-friends for the assistance and support in sustaining the preparation of posts for the Statistically Speaking v.2.0.

[E2]: SEA-PLM stands for Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics, https://www.seaplm.org/media/k2/items/cache/01f1a05053c6242fcfa23075e5b963c1_XL.jpg, UNICEF & SEAMEO. (2020). SEA-PLM 2019 Main Regional Report, Children’s learning in 6 Southeast Asian countries. Bangkok, Thailand: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF & Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) — SEA-PLM Secretariat; https://www.seaplm.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29&Itemid=252

[E3]: ISCED refers to the International Standard Classification of Education, the standard framework used to categorise and report cross-nationally comparable education statistics adopted by the UNESCO General Conference.